The work of a 24-year-old Georgian artist, Levan Songulashvili, has been sold at Sotheby’s. The Jellyfish featured
in the Take Home a Nude event on October 15, was sold to an American art collector. The price Songulashvili’s painting sold for was not disclosed however event organizers said $900,000 USD w

as raised for the New York Academy of Art. Adam Wesley, the famous artist, photographer, critic and currently ESPN employee published a review about Levan Songulashvili.

“Levan has the workings of a truly great artist and that is of suffering, conflict-questioning. The conflict, that he struggles with, the inner turmoil, the pain… and the beauty within that pain, the confliction between morality and religion that we all face in one way or another, the inevitability of life and death, the searching and the longing to understand who and what we are… is clearly evident in each of his pieces. His belief is humanity and his talent in showcasing the raw struggle between spirit and earth, ego and truth, religion and spirit is very evident in each vision he works to achieve.

And this is the beginning of a journey; great art – the ability to show us something that resonates on a profoundly personal and spiritual level – as an artist I look at his works – within the 4th degree – beyond the technical aspects and I see a keen and a raw ability to show us that struggle – darkness, the loneliness, the self-imposed pain we create, the very real morality that we face each day. In this work I see a desperation and obscurity that bonds us all as sentient beings. There is a hollow and moving beauty in the unknown, there is a light, a redemption that we can all find.

Each of his pieces is a constantly evolving work of self-discovery and understanding… a hellish conflict of questioning, probing and seeking (throwing paint brushes, ripping up canvases, burying head-in-hands).

However, in the end… Levan creates and this is it. He opens a window into the soul of ego, morality, spirit. A ripple of dark water disturbed be a curious mind – comprehension of the incomprehensible through continual (often frustrating) questioning and abstract guidance.

Levan is not impressed or influenced by the material world and his work is not that of someone who seeks to truly understand the ultimate scheme of things. His work is that of one brilliantly insightful, curious, and sensitive and constantly changing. He is an artist be nature not by influence, raising or personal gain. Levan was born to create art and fortunately (for us) came into the right setting with the raw ability. What truly moves those who look upon his work is the poignant beauty and sadness of the human spirit. Someone with his ability, someone who creates this artwork transparently without personal gain and cause in mind is a rare soul” – reads the review, published by Adam Wesley.